Serious allegations of "real corruption" within the Northern Territory's public service have been reported to the Independent Commission Against Corruption within days of it opening.

Key points:

The new NT ICAC commissioner hopes to launch serious investigations into corruption by mid-January

The commissioner believes it will soon become clear his office is under-resourced

Allegations of corruption can be reported through the new ICAC website

Speaking to ABC Darwin this morning, the NT's first ICAC commissioner, Ken Fleming QC, said he hoped to launch broad investigations into some of the "really concerning" allegations, made through the new ICAC website, by mid-January.

The independent body opened on November 30 and was a key election promise by Labor in 2015, following the scandals and instability that plagued the former CLP government.

It is responsible for receiving, identifying and investigating reports of corruption and misconduct by government, public bodies, public officers and those who receive government money, including contractors and grant recipients.

It also has the power to investigate MLAs, courts, tribunals, local government councils and independent officers — which were previously outside the jurisdiction of Northern Territory watchdog bodies.

"Now we don't have very many of them. But the website's only been open for a number of days. And people have to get used to the website.

"But I know of many other things that I will be looking at of my own motion if they don't come in."

He said issues of contemporary, significant and systemic corruption were his top priority.

"Things like tampering with tendering, deliberately ignoring conflict of interest, obviously stealing money … anything that could constitute a crime and could carry more than a two-year maximum imprisonment penalty is corruption," Mr Fleming said.

Anyone wishing to report an issue for ICAC to investigate should do so via the website: icac.nt.gov.au.

'Capacity will be taken up quickly'

Mr Fleming believed it would quickly become clear that his office was under-resourced.

"There are a lot of allegations flying around. Many more are out there that have come in to me," he said.

"We have three investigators and their capacity will be taken up very quickly when we get into some serious investigations which will probably be in mid January."

But he acknowledged he was able to second people or bring in consultants on investigations.

This morning, Northern Territory Treasurer Nicole Manison would not commit to providing more resources for the new anti-corruption watchdog at this stage.

"We'll certainly work along with the ICAC commissioner, but being an organisation we have given it its funding, we will keep conversations going with the ICAC commissioner," she said.

'Vindictive allegations'

Mr Fleming said criminal charges could be brought against those who made vindictive referrals to ICAC.

"If you make such an allegation you cannot be considered to be a whistleblower," he said.

"The act says you've got to have a belief in what you're telling the ICAC and if you don't have that belief but in fact you are doing that vindictively, there are penal consequences."

Asked if defamation cases could be brought against those who made reports to ICAC, Mr Fleming said although it was a complex area, he believed it was a "real possibility".

Earlier, Mr Fleming said he had concerns about the Gunner Government's recent decision to cut funding to the Director of Public Prosecution's fraud squad, which will be where he refers his ICAC investigations.

"The DPP does a good job, recent events show that," he said.

"But they have finite resources and they're human beings and you can only do so much.

"I want to make sure that what we send to them, which I hope will be well-prepared work that they can then take and run with, can be prosecuted.

"I can assure you I will be doing everything that I can to push the work forward."